| Abstract: |
The Town of Mashpee, MA has a fully functioning GIS with a website, concurrent use licensing, centrally located and maintained data, large format scanner, plotter…etc. It's all good and works great. However - this was all purchased and designed in more affluent times. Like all other municipalities in the Country, Mashpee is experiencing economic hardships that require budget cuts. For Mashpee GIS this has meant fewer software licenses, fewer man-hours and fewer dollars available for consulting services. This often manifests itself in data updating falling behind schedule, more map production work on the GIS staff (due to fewer licenses) and a stoppage in data layer creation. In Mashpee we were able to tackle the data layer creation problem via a GPS data collection program designed to encourage volunteers, DPW staff and even Firemen to do the data collection for us. These folks are already doing field work in areas that needed additional mapping. By equipping these folks with intuitive and inexpensive GPS devices (and doing a little pre-field design work), we found that we were able to continue with our data collection activities and still have confidence in the results. |